Eric Barbee

Eric Barbee’s 2001 research on the religious diversity of Arkansas was undertaken while he was a student at Harvard Divinity School. This research was situated within the geographic, economic, and social diversity of the state of Arkansas itself. Focusing on the eastern and northwestern regions, Barbee’s work investigated both the urban contexts of Little Rock and Fayetteville as well as rural areas. This distinction is especially important in a state where almost half the population lives outside of urban centers. Barbee’s work also attends to the relation between religious minorities and the dominant conservative Christianity of the “Bible Belt.”